1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a vehicle movement data recording and analyzing system for recording and collecting vehicle movement data indicative of moving conditions of a vehicle such as a speed and a travel distance onto a record medium and analyzing the thus collected vehicle movement data and also to a vehicle movement data recording apparatus for use with such vehicle movement data recording and analyzing system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Vehicle movement data recording and analyzing systems of the type mentioned are conventionally known, and an exemplary one of such conventional recording and analyzing systems is shown in FIG. 10.
Referring to FIG. 10, the conventional recording and analyzing system shown includes a vehicle movement data recording apparatus 1 carried on a vehicle for compressing vehicle movement data indicative of moving conditions of the vehicle in accordance with a predetermined set value and recording the thus compressed vehicle movement data onto a record medium 2. The record analyzing system further includes a vehicle movement data analyzing apparatus 3 installed at an office for the supervision of movements of vehicles for reading compressed vehicle movement data from such record medium 2 and expanding and analyzing the thus read vehicle movement data.
Generally, in order to perform such recording and analysis as described above, predetermined set values must be set as specifications for an allowance (tolerance) in vehicle speed compression and a sampling time used on the recording side, a recording location of a record medium (whether an option is to be recorded or not and so forth), presence or absence of and a speed for a speed alarm, and so forth. Since, for example, the accuracy of vehicle movement data obtained by such compression processing as described above depends upon an allowance in vehicle speed compression and a sampling time as such predetermined set values as mentioned above, the set values must be varied when the accuracy of vehicle movement data desired by a user are different. A setting device 1a is thus provided for the vehicle movement data recording apparatus 1 so that various values may be set as the predetermined set values.
Since the set values are used also when the vehicle movement data analyzing apparatus 3 reads vehicle movement data recorded on the record medium 2 and expands the thus read vehicle movement data, the set values are also recorded on the record medium 2 together with compressed data.
The vehicle movement data recording apparatus 1 of the conventional system described above are shown more particularly in FIG. 11. Referring to FIG. 11, the vehicle movement data recording apparatus 1 is constituted from a microcomputer (CPU=central processing unit) 1c. The microcomputer 1c samples and receives an electric signal generated from a rotation sensor 11 connected to a transmission of the vehicle by suitable connecting means and having a period conforming to rotation of an axle of the vehicle and determines an instantaneous speed and a travel distance of the vehicle by calculation in accordance with the thus received electric signal. Then, in order to record the instantaneous speed and travel distance obtained by such calculation as digital data onto a record medium 2 loaded on a writer 1b, the microcomputer 1c further executes data compressing processing for decreasing the data length of the instantaneous speed and travel distance. Meanwhile, the setting device 1a is constituted from jumper lines or a dip switch connected to the CPU 1 so as to cope with a case wherein detailed specifications of any processing executed by the CPU 1 for such compressing processing as described above are different among different users. In FIG. 11, the setting device 1a is shown constituted from a setting device 1a.sub.1 for setting an allowance, another setting device 1a.sub.2 for setting a sampling time, and a further setting device 1a.sub.3 for setting an alarm speed.
Meanwhile, though not shown, the analyzing apparatus 3 is constituted from a personal computer (PC) and a reader-writer (RW) connected to the personal computer. If the record medium 2 is loaded into the reader-writer, then vehicle movement data recorded on the record medium 2 are read out by the reader-writer and transmitted to and stored into a memory in the personal computer. The data thus stored in the memory are expanded and analyzed in accordance with an analysis program and recorded onto a floppy disk (FD).
With the conventional system described above, since recording specifications which vary among various users are set by way of the setting device 1a connected to the CPU 1c, if setting items are increased in number, then the system may not cope with such increase of setting items because the CPU 1C has an only limited number of ports. Further, when it is desired to vary the specifications, the recording apparatus must be removed from the vehicle and disassembled. In this manner, an operation for varying the specifications is cumbersome.